by Dean Hughes
Will knocked on the Winthrops’ door late one afternoon, and he found them home. “Elder Lewis,” Jake said, looking bright with happiness, “we feared you would never return. There’s so much more we want to know. Come in. Come in.”
Will shared a fine supper with the Winthrops. He got better acquainted with their three little children—two daughters and a son—laughed with them, taught the whole family some of the hymns of Zion, and then discussed the gospel all evening. The following morning Will accepted Faith’s offer to fill a tub for him so that he could have a bath. Faith also washed his two shirts and brushed his vest and coat, and Jake cleaned and polished his boots. Will hadn’t felt so refreshed in a long time.
After breakfast Will sat down with Jake and Faith in their little parlor. “We wish to be baptized,” Jake told Will. “We’ve thought so since we read the pamphlet you left us, but after our talk last night, we are sure of it—both of us.”
Jake was not yet thirty, Will was sure, and Faith was perhaps twenty-five or so. They were a handsome couple, well spoken, and seemed to be devoted to one another and their children. Will had learned a little about them, that they had come west from South Carolina, where they had been raised. Both had attended country schools and had been raised on farms, and they both had been taught to attend church every Sunday. But they had seen too much pettiness and hypocrisy in the churches they had attended. “That night when you preached,” Jake told Will, “you seemed different from the people we’ve met in our church. You were respectful and patient, even when Mr. Mikkelson and Reverend Fields tried to make you look foolish.”
“But I never should have tossed that big fellow in the mud.”
Faith laughed. She was not so pretty as Liz, but she was a bright-eyed young woman, with deep dimples. “He had it coming,” she said. “I thought maybe the good Lord gave you just a little help.”
“I doubt he helps a man in such an unworthy purpose.”
“Oh, I’m not so sure. The Lord must like to see a bully like Calvin receive a little of his own medicine.”
“You sound like my wife,” Will said. “She’s a better Christian than I am, but she’s not disappointed when I kick a man in the seat of his trousers—if he has it coming.”
“So is that something you often do?” Faith asked, and she laughed again.
“I won’t admit to that.” Will grinned. “But it has happened before. I must admit, I was surprised when you said I was patient. It’s what I try to be—but it’s not my natural way.”
“I’m a little like that myself,” Jake said. “But, Brother Will—may I call you that?”
“Yes. By all means.”
“We saw something in you that night. They gave you little chance to speak, but we heard the conviction in your voice—and you raised the very questions we had been posing about our own religion. When you said that a prophet of God was living today, my head told me not to believe it, but I felt my chest swelling all the same. I knew that you honestly believed it, and I wanted to believe it too.”
“I hope you can meet Joseph someday. You’ll know it then as surely as I do.”
“But we don’t want to wait for that,” Faith said. “Can you baptize us today? There’s a pond on our farm.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Are there others of your faith anywhere here about?” Jake asked. “Can we find meetings to attend?”
“Not close.” Will thought for a time, and then he knew what he believed. “Come to Zion,” he said. “Join with the Saints in Nauvoo.”
“We’ve been wondering about that. We’re not sure we can sell our farm for enough to get us started there, but it’s what we’re thinking we would like to do.”
“Come, and don’t worry yourself about getting started. I’ll help you. I have oxen to open fields for you. I’ll gather men to build you a house.”
“But is it truly as good a place as Mr. Pratt claims it is?”
Will had to think for a time. Finally he said, “‘Yes,’ on the one hand, and ‘not yet’ on the other. You’ll see a temple there, still being built, and you’ll meet a people doing their best to look out for one another. But the Saints are not perfect. They’re like me. I preach of Jesus and then toss a man in the mud. But I’ll tell you what I know. We’re trying to build a society like none other on earth—a people who follow Jesus Christ and love and respect one another.”
Jake was thinking, and Will gave him time. “We have the Book of Mormon you left with us,” he finally said, “and we can continue to read it. But I do want to bring my family to Nauvoo—not this year, but probably a year from now.”
“That would be a good time to come. We have a plot of land that anyone can use for farmland when they first arrive. I’ll plow twenty acres for you in the fall, then harrow it in the spring. It will be ready to plant when you arrive.”
“That’s more than I could have hoped for,” Jake said. He looked at Faith. She was nodding, looking sure of herself. So that afternoon, Will baptized both of them in the little pond on their farm, and then he said good-bye and began his trek home, feeling more satisfied with his mission.
• • •
Spring stayed very cold. As Will traveled north, he learned that the Mississippi was still frozen, so he kept going on foot and was relieved when a thaw finally came. That meant hard slogging on muddy roads, but he arrived in Carthage on the last day of March. He thought he might stop there for the night but was surprised at the hostile responses he received. The uneasy feelings about the Saints in Hancock County seemed to be getting worse. He decided to continue on, and he trudged through much of the night on the Nauvoo-Carthage road. Late in the night he slept for a couple of hours alongside the road, but he awakened very cold. He thought of those nights long ago in England when he had tramped all the way home from Manchester with an infection raging through his body. Back then he had been almost hopeless, and today he knew he would see Liz, that she was his wife, that the miracle he had hoped for back then had actually come about.
Even though he was tired and cold, he set out walking again long before sunup, and he arrived at his house when he thought maybe Liz would be cooking breakfast. He was hungry, but it was not the breakfast that excited him. He wanted to hold Liz in his arms, and he wanted to see little Jacob. He tried to shake a little of the dried mud off his coat and trousers—with little success—and then stepped to the door. He didn’t want to open the door and startle Liz, and he didn’t want to knock on his own door, so he spoke from outside. “Liz,” he said, “I’m home.” He tried the door then and found that it was latched. “Liz?” he said again, and suddenly the door flew open.
She was still in her nightgown, her hair down, and she was as beautiful as he remembered—maybe more. “Oh, Will,” she said, and she stepped toward him just as he grabbed her up in his arms. Her body, in his arms, fired the longing he had been feeling. He kissed her, and then he stepped back enough to look at her again.
“This is the moment I’ve waited for every day I was gone,” he said.
“It was the same for me. It seemed such a very long time, but it wasn’t, not really.” And then she spun around. “Look at Jacob. Look how he’s grown.” Jacob was sitting on the floor, looking rather alarmed. Liz picked him up. “This is your father,” she said. “Remember Daddy?”
Jacob brightened as Will leaned toward him and said, “Hello, little man. You’ve grown so big.” And it was in that moment that Will realized, this was not his adopted child. This was Jacob, his son. Somehow God had made it so.
• • •
Will had arrived home on a Saturday morning, and he had hoped to hear Joseph preach in the grove on Sunday. He soon learned that Joseph was in Ramus, an outlying settlement east of Carthage, holding a conference with the members there. But on the following Thursday, April 6, 1843—the thirteenth anniversary of the founding of the Church—a special confere
nce began in the temple. The walls of the temple were no higher than they had been in the fall, with work having stopped during the winter, but Will had been told that a great deal of stone had been prepared and hauled during the cold months, and the work was set to move forward quickly now.
The congregation on the main floor of the temple was packed tight, and Will felt fortunate that he and Liz and Jacob had arrived early enough to get inside. Will found a seat for Liz, with Jacob on her lap, and then he stood along the wall with many others who were collecting in every space they could find. To Will’s disappointment, at eleven o’clock, when the meeting opened, Joseph Smith had not yet arrived. The word spread through the crowd that he was officiating at court and would arrive as soon as he could. Brigham Young, President of the Quorum of the Twelve, conducted the meeting. Will had been able to greet Hyrum Smith when he and Liz had arrived, along with several of the Apostles. He felt warmly welcomed by all of them as they asked him about his mission. Will especially enjoyed seeing his old friends Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards.
It was almost an hour after the meeting had begun when Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Orson Hyde arrived. Elder Orson Pratt was speaking at the time and seemed ready to say much more, but he ended his sermon rather quickly, and Joseph Smith stood and greeted the congregation. When he stepped to the little raised platform, he seemed changed to Will. He was more relaxed. Maybe it was because he no longer had to fear his arrest every day. He was wearing the same suit of clothes Will remembered from times past, but the fit seemed tighter, as though he had been eating well this winter.
“We all ought to be thankful for the privilege we enjoy this day,” he said, “of meeting so many of the Saints, and for the warmth and brightness of the heavens over our heads. It truly makes the countenances of this great multitude to look cheerily, and gladden the hearts of all present.”
Will’s heart was gladdened. He was happy to be home, happy to be among people who loved the gospel and held the same beliefs he did. He knew his faith was stronger because of his mission, and he would always be thankful for some of the things he’d experienced, but he was also weary of being hated. The good, warm day was exhilarating, too, just as Joseph had said. Will had heard the claim that the ice on the Mississippi was still two feet thick, at least straight west and north of the city. Many had crossed on the ice from Zarahemla to attend the conference. Just south, however, the ice was finally breaking up and Will knew that new immigrants would finally be arriving.
After a hymn by the Nauvoo band and choir, Joseph Smith told the members that there were a number of matters of business to take care of. First, he wanted to ascertain the standing of the First Presidency. “Are you satisfied,” he asked, “with the First Presidency in so far as I am concerned, as an individual, to preside over the whole church; or would you have another? If I have done anything that ought to injure my character, reputation, or standing; or have dishonored our religion by any means in the sight of men, or angels, or in the sight of men and women, I am sorry for it, and if you will forgive me, I will endeavor to do so no more. I do not know that I have done anything of the kind; but if I have, come forward and tell me of it. If anyone has any objection to me, I want you to come boldly and frankly, and tell of it; and if not, ever after hold your peace.”
After a motion to sustain Joseph Smith as President of the whole Church was introduced and seconded, Brigham Young called on the congregation to sustain the motion, and as far as Will could see, every hand was raised high. Will felt a surge of confidence as he glanced about and saw the earnest faces of such a big congregation, united in their support of the Prophet.
• • •
As things turned out, it was not until the third day of the conference that Joseph finally gave a full sermon. He spoke of the beasts in the book of Revelation. He gave a lengthy explanation of the symbolic meanings of those beasts, and that was interesting to Will, but when the sermon ended, the words that remained in Will’s mind were Joseph’s comments on the subject of knowledge. He said that useless knowledge sometimes made people “puffed up” and prideful, and led to contention. But true knowledge could do away with darkness. “In knowledge there is power,” he said. “God has more power than all other beings, because he has greater knowledge.”
Joseph saw danger in knowledge that led to pride; and yet, knowledge was not to be feared but to be sought. Will felt the rightness of that. He was glad for a religion that didn’t fear learning. He had wished all his life that he had more education, and now he wondered whether he couldn’t find time in his schedule to take some of the classes offered by the Nauvoo University. Joseph was studying German these days, and Will wasn’t sure he wanted to do that, but he knew he wanted to understand Hebrew, and he wanted to understand the scriptures at a deeper level. Still, planting had to come next. His only hope was to take a class the following winter.
After three days of conference, Will returned to his daily work, but this time of jubilation had been just what he had needed. He had proclaimed the gospel and held firm in the face of great opposition. And now, as he associated with the Saints again, he felt a sense of being one with them. Above all, he felt sure that he and Liz had made the right choice in accepting the gospel and coming to Nauvoo. What pleased him, in addition, was that he had returned to a wife who was stronger and more sure of herself. She too had grown during the time he had been gone.
Chapter 11
Jeff had picked up his mother-in-law at the St. Louis airport early in the evening, and now he was driving west on Interstate 70 and watching for the turnoff to head north toward Nauvoo. It was a long drive, upwards of three hours, and not one that Jeff was excited about sharing with Olivia Ramsey. For a couple of weeks now Olivia had been wanting to help, but Abby had told her over and over that there was nothing she could do so long as little William was still in the hospital. Now that he was home, Dr. Hunt had suggested that he not have visitors, that he be protected from any sort of virus or illness that might be going around. Abby had tried to suggest to her mom that even she should wait a while before she visited, and that had brought on an icy, angry sarcasm that had frightened Abby. She had quickly changed her tune and invited Olivia to come, but a day of pouting had followed before Abby had called again, apologized, and invited her mother in the most sincere voice she could bring herself to use. And now, here she was.
Jeff had always found Mr. Ramsey quite easy to talk to, and, at her best, Olivia could be charming and funny. She liked that Jeff was a Stanford graduate, and she made a point of introducing him with that credential: “This is Jeff, my son-in-law. Abby met him at Stanford.” But tonight Olivia was tired after a two-legged flight with a rather long layover in Cincinnati, and apparently still put out that Jeff had talked her out of the morning flight she had originally planned to take. Their first conversation, after Jeff had greeted her, had been anything but pleasant.
“This was a ghastly flight,” she said. “I got out of Newark late, as always, and I worried I’d miss my connection, but then we sat in Cincinnati for an extra hour without so much as an apology, let alone an explanation.”
“That’s too bad,” Jeff said. “I’m sure you’re tired. Maybe you can sleep a little in the car.”
“I don’t sleep in cars and I don’t sleep in airplanes. Not in those horrible seats. That’s why I wanted to fly in the morning. They have a direct flight then, and they don’t seem to have delays that time of day.”
“I’m really sorry about that,” Jeff said, and then he slipped away to grab her suitcase off the carousel. It was one of those huge bags that people use for international trips. He wondered how long she was planning to stay. He tugged the big bag off and returned to her, and then decided he had better try to explain about the schedule. “My concern about your flying in the morning was that I didn’t want you to have to wait here at the airport too long. I didn’t feel like I could get off work until at least two, and that was
pushing it.”
“Won’t those people you work for give you a little time off for something like this? What kind of boss do you have?”
“Actually, he’s been great, Olivia. He really has. I’m new there, and yet he’s let me leave early a lot with Will in the hospital all the time.”
“Is that what you’re calling him? Will?”
“That’s what I call him sometimes. Abby calls him William.”
“I would think so.”
Jeff let that one go. He saw the mood his mother-in-law was in, and he made a quick decision not to converse any more than he had to. A light snow had started that afternoon as Jeff had driven down to the airport. He knew the traffic would be a bit of a trial coming out of St. Louis, and he could be seeing more serious snow as he headed north. He decided he would keep his mind on his driving and avoid all the dangerous areas of discussion that Olivia tended to bring up.
He pulled up the handle on the big bag and rolled it behind him as he walked ahead of her to the parking lot. The sun was down now, with only a hint of twilight in the western clouds. At least the snow was not falling any harder. Once he got out of the city traffic, he figured he could make good time going back.
At the car, Jeff called Abby and let her know they were on their way, and then he watched the signs as he worked his way out of the airport and onto the freeway.
“These people don’t know how to drive in city traffic,” Olivia complained.
Jeff tried to think what that meant. Didn’t St. Louis qualify as a city? Or did she mean that they were all hicks who had wandered into town? Maybe New York was the only real city, and this was “out west,” where people by definition weren’t as savvy. But Jeff didn’t want to argue with her, so he merely said, “Yeah, I guess so.”
